About

Workshop Objectives

• Demonstrate how an integrated approach rooted in education, health systems, and the science of learning can produce more effective, equitable, and culturally aligned behavioral change strategies. 

• Articulate key gaps between contemporary science of learning and current health and educational practice.

• Present the Cultural Ecology Framework as an integrated behavioral change framework that combines cognitive science with public health and education, moving beyond deficit models and nudge theory.

• Facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue across health systems, demography, behavioral science, education, and digital health.

• Co-design actionable strategies to transform behavioral change interventions used across India.

• Develop long-term partnerships to seed foundational research and capacity-building initiatives within Ashoka University’s emerging Cognitive Science group.

Building Systems Hackathon

A core component of the workshop will be a structured Building Systems Hackathon. Rather than developing apps or prototypes, participants will generate:

• Multi-level systems maps of behavioral change ecosystems

• Intervention logics identifying leverage points and failure modes

• Partnership and stakeholder diagrams

• Research roadmaps for future pilots and collaborative projects

This process will transform disciplinary insights into actionable, institution-building outputs for Ashoka University.

Who will be involved?

• Ashoka University faculty and researchers 

• Public health experts and demographers  

• NGOs and health system partners  

• Cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, engineers, practitioners, and learning scientists 

• Digital health innovators 

• Early-career researchers and postgraduate students 

• International collaborators